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Bones Review: The Suitcase Case

It's one thing not to mention Hodgins's lost fortune. I can buy that they wouldn't talk about their personal finances at work. But the central character back at work so soon? And no one so much as utters a "take it easy?"

With no mention of her near-death experience this week, or even residual weakness from having undergone two surgeries, and a reference to Michelle coming home for Christmas when summer is our next break, I have to wonder what's happening in the writers' room that there are so many continuity errors on Bones Season 8.

And yet, despite those errors, "The Friend in Need" managed to be a moving, Sweets-centric episode.

I know Sweets has his haters, and some of that disdain for the character is rightfully earned. He meddles. He takes the focus away from Booth and Bones. He's the annoying kid brother you just can't get rid of.

But the part of him that desperately wants to help others is sometimes rather endearing.

During the questioning of the deceased victim's mother and neighbors, it was obvious that something was up with the teenage girl. She knew something and needed someone's help. Sweets knew it. I expected that she would have information about the boy's disappearance. I did not expect that she would tell Sweets that she had been date raped and that her mother - her own mother - had blamed her for it.

While I know that sort of thing happens every day, as a mother myself I, like Bones, cannot imagine doing nothing to bring my daughter's attacker to justice.

Sweets couldn't understand that either and saw a kindred spirit in the young girl. His opening up to her about his childhood in foster care was a sad and touching moment. His tale about being abused by his foster father "for sport" made me want to hug him. Even though he long ago exorcised his own demons, Sweets needed to find her attacker for himself as much as for her.

The shared history of troubled childhoods is the common ground that brings Sweets, Bones and Booth together in the friendship they've developed, and there are times, like tonight, when this threesome is well-balanced.

Booth and Bones are the power-duo, and yes, I prefer episodes where they are the central case-solvers. But occasionally, an episode like this occurs where I almost don't mind that they've taken the back seat to Sweets, allowing him his moment even though Booth had already figured out that the moving man's son was both the rapist and the murderer. Booth knew that Sweets needed to feel that he had avenged the young girl, so he gave Sweets the win, so to speak.

It was a very "Booth" thing to do. It was also a very Bones thing to wonder if Booth had ever done the same to her and then immediately dismiss that as a possibility because of her superior intellect. Their banter was a light way to end an otherwise serious and somber hour.

Similarly, that was the intended purpose of the Cam/Michelle/Finn story tonight. It was a distraction that lightened the episode as a whole and really nothing more.

It's hard to criticize an episode that deals with the subject of rape and sheds light on the fact that not only do rapes occur all the time, many of them are unreported. So while I could spend time picking tonight apart, I won't. To do so would be an injustice to the topic, and there will always be more Bones to examine next week.

What did you think of "The Friend In Need?" Don't forget to check out the Bones quotes page and be sure to let me know what you thought of tonight's episode in the comments below.